So, you are considering upgrading to SQL Server 200x from a previous version. What are some of the key issues that you need to consider, or at least be made aware of, prior to upgrading?
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Early this morning, Bob Ward of Microsoft PSS SQL Support fame authored a post on the PSS Support blog entitled "SQL Server Support in a Hardware Virtualization Environment". As always, Bob's comments are helpful.
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My latest Simple-Talk article is live. It's entitled Using Covering Indexes to Improve Query Performance. Let me know what you think and if you'd like to see more articles/postings on similar topics.
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Late last year, I posted a blog that described the undocumented sp_MSforeachtable stored procedure in Microsoft SQL Server and how it could be used to execute commands on each table within a database.
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Fellow SQL Server enthusiast and online friend of mine, Jonathan Kehayias is very active in the MSDN Forums. He frequently provides good, insightful information to those seeking advice.
In response to a recent question in the Database Engine Forum, Jonathan provided a good example how a process marked as sleeping can still hold locks on a SQL Server resource.
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Next week at the Nashville SQL Server User Group, John Rives of Amniox is going to speak about using SQL Server with clustered virtualization. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to attend due to a prior commitment, however I have spoken with John about his presentation and it definitely sounds promising.
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As Geoff and Derek have already posted, SQL Server 2008 was released to manufacturing (RTM'd) yesterday. Eager to get the bits? They're available from the MSDN download site. Cheers!
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Thanks to everyone who attended my SSRS class in Charlotte this week. As promised, here is a list of online resources that may prove useful to you as you work with Reporting Services.
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I was searching for something online the other day and stumbled upon this TechNet article - Working with tempdb in SQL Server 2005. It's a good little article and I wanted to share it with you.
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I was recently perusing the the MSDN SQL Server forums and noticed a question about localization of Microsoft SQL Server messages. I replied to the post with a mention of the sys.
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Thanks to everyone who attended my "Identifying Performance Bottlenecks" session this morning at DevTeach/SQLTeach. As promised, here is the PowerPoint slide deck I used during the presentation. Regarding the question of on the performance of LINQ, Bob Beauchemin recently posted a series of blogs entries on the topic.
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The nomenclature used for referencing software releases and updates can be quite confusing. Let's consider an example to illustrate what the various terms mean. As a new version of a product is being developed, it may be made available to select customers and community members for early testing.
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I hope that everyone that works with Microsoft SQL Server is aware of the MSDN SQL Server Forums. If not, you should really go check them out. They're a great resource when you're staring at a tough SQL Server-related problem.
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At the 2007 PASS Community Summit in Denver, a keynote speaker made a passing comment about how there has not been a security bulletin released for SQL Server in over three years!
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Thanks to all 60+ people who braved the flood warnings in Nashville to attend the SQL Server User Group meeting earlier today. I hope you found it to be worth your while.
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If you've used SQL Server for a while, you're probably familiar with the @@version function. Selecting the function in a query window produces the following results on my system.
From this, you can quickly determine that I'm running SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition version 9.
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Interested in learning more about Microsoft SQL 2008 Server Reporting Services? I recently stumbled upon a White Paper on the Microsoft site that provides a good overview. While weighing in at only 14 pages including the title page, table of contents, and copyright stuff, it does provide a good, abeit somewhat general, overview of the product and it's capabilities.
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I recently worked with Buck Woody to turn one of my blog posts into a podcast. It's my first podcast! :) I recorded it about midnight one evening after everyone else in my family had retired for the evening.
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I just completed teaching a Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services class in Charlotte, North Carolina - a wonderful and beautiful place to visit! In a couple of the demonstrations, we used some predefined formatting strings to customize the way a user can see a value in a report.
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Last week, I completed an upgrade of a SQL Server 2000 server to SQL Server 2005. Not really a big deal; servers are routinely upgraded to a newer version of software.
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